Black and White
by redex
Summary: AkaneHiiragi. Which is the absense and which is the presense? [oneshot]


Because _Blue Flower _sounded like me when I'm depressed. Poor Hiiragi.

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**Black and White**

_by_

**Redex**

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Tachibana is a bit in awe of Hiiragi's apartment, and not only the apartment itself, but the sheer emptiness of it.

Hiiragi is a fair bit in awe of Tachibana's house as well, and not only the home, but also the sheer amount of istuff/i it has stuffed into it.

It has become somewhat of a habit that whenever Hiiragi wins the final one-on-one match of the day, he follows Tachibana home and wallows in the loud shrieks and squeals coming from Tachibana's younger sister and her friends. The radio will be blaring out in the kitchen, the TV on, and Hiiragi feels more comfortable and at home than he ever does in his own.

Tachibana will grab him and drag him up into his room to do some mandatory homework until Tachibana's mother sticks her head in and asks Hitonari for the millionth time if he would like to stay overnight.

Hitonari nearly always says no and returns to his cold, silent apartment to sleep.

When he does choose to stay, on the worst of the bad days, he always reminds Tachibana that he has an amazing and wonderful mother, and Tachibana always replies with a waving hand, "I know, I know" coming out of his mouth, but his eyes are serious.

On the nights where Tachibana wins, and Hiiragi makes sure they are rare, Tachibana borrows money and calls home to his mother to yell for a bit before saying he would be staying over at Hiiragi's house for the night.

He found it soothing to be somewhere where no one was bugging you to clean up or help make supper, and he really didn't have a problem with living off of instant food. But after the first time seeing the state of Hiiragi's kitchen, he always made sure to stop by a corner store on the way to pick up his own food.

They would go inside and sit around and talk or read or just do homework until one of them decided they were too tired to go on. Akane always let Hiiragi take the shower first, secretly admiring the body that came out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and dripping.

Tachibana only brought up the topic of why Hitonari was in an apartment once, when they were both lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Hitonari was just too tired to fake his way out of it, which had been Tachibana's intention from the beginning.

"My father was mad at me... he didn't want me in the house if I wasn't going to be part of his dream for me and my brother."

The bitterness in his voice was not surprising. Akane had heard it there before, in fact, every time Hiiragi spoke of his father.

"What about your mum?" Tachibana asked quietly, thinking of the fit his own mother would throw if he tried to get his own apartment.

"She didn't want me to go, of course, but my father always overrules her. I guess that's why he married her. She didn't want me on my own. I had a break down a year ago and slashed my wrists. She nearly divorced my father over it, when he only got mad at me. 'Professional athletes don't have breakdowns from stress, they channel that stress into their work and get over it!' he kept saying. The psychiatrist convinced her that it would only make things worse."

They were silent for a while, Hiiragi's insides churning in anticipation of what Akane would say. He hadn't meant to tell him, or tell anyone for that matter, but now that it was out, he wanted... he didn't know what he wanted, but he vaguely hoped that Tachibana would stick around despite it.

"I never would've thought you'd..." Tachibana looked up and could only see the siluette of Hitonari's face against the window, silvery-pale hair glowing in the light from the streetlights outside.

He fell silent again and slowly removed one hand from under his head and flopped it down on where he estimated Hiiragi's forehead to be.

"Don't worry about it," he mumbled, letting his hand rest there, on top of the still-damp skin and hair.

Tachibana made sure that Hitonari stayed over more often at his house, and although Hitonari knew it stemmed from his confession earlier, he didn't really mind.

It was better than sleeping alone in his apartment.

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Comment please! 


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